About three years ago I began following prospects coming up through the Yankees farm system. At the time, most everything I learned about these players was brand new information. In the beginning, I was guilty of extreme prospect hugging, without much knowledge of how scouting reports and other important factors played a role in player progression as they move up through the minors. The knowledge continued to improve as time went on and read anything I could get my hands on relating to Yankees prospects.

Two years later, on June 27th, 2011, I made my first post for Evil Empire Prospects. This self-created blog served as an excellent hobby, and some people even began to follow it regularly and read the posts. 80 posts and 5,000 or so views later, I received an offer I could not refuse to write for Bronx Baseball Daily. Today is my first post.

In case you were interested, here is a little bit about myself. I am currently finishing up the last remnants of medical school, and will start my residency in a couple of months. In the meantime, I will continue to work on my hobby by posting here at least every Wednesday, depending on my schedule. Some elements of the Evil Empire Prospects are being brought over to Bronx Baseball Daily, including but not limited to the nicknames. Here is an introductory list of those nicknames. I will always include the player’s real name in every post, but it’s a fun way to remember guys. I am always open to new nicknames, and I am always trying to think about newer, better ones for each player.

Austin BRomine = Austin Romine

Bichette Happens = Dante Bichette Jr.

Boilin Zoilo = Zoilo Almonte

BRomance = Josh Romanski

Bubba Gumbs = Angelo Gumbs

Castrol GTX = Kelvin Castro

Cheeto Culver = Cito Culver

CoJo = Corban Joseph

DAdams = David Adams

Dee Mack = DeAngelo Mack

Eddy Sosa = Eduardo Sosa

Gamel the Camel = Ben Gamel

Gotham City = Caleb Cotham

Graham Cracker = Graham Stoneburner

Higgy = Kyle Higashioka

Honest Abe = Abraham Almonte

Hungry Like the Wolves = Duran

J-Ram = Jose Ramirez

Janitor Custodio = Claudio Custodio

JoVa = Jorge Vazquez

K-Flan = Kevin Flannery

K-Roll = Kyle Roller

Krame Dog = Kramer Sneed

Mad Cowsert Disease = Cory Cowsert

Mad Mase = Mason Williams

ManBan = Manny Banuelos

Melkman 2 = Melky Mesa

Monte Python = Mark Montgomery

Murph = JR Murphy

Musketeer = Ronnier Mustelier

R-Ly = Rob Lyerly

Ravenous Ravel = Ravel Santana

Ray-Flo = Ramon Flores

RePo = Reynaldo Polanco

Rutzkrieg = Evan Rutskyj

Sanchize = Gary Sanchez

Seggy = Rob Segedin

Sideshow = Pat Venditte

Super Nova = Ivan Nova

Tejeda the hata = Isaias Tejeda

Turley Bird = Nik Turley

As I said, these nicknames are fluid and always amendable. Here’s what you can expect from me as a writer/prospect analyst. First of all, even though I have learned the lessons of overemphasizing stats in prospects, it is still the single most important factor I look at when evaluating a player. A prospect can have all of the talent in the world, but unless they are able to tap into that talent, nothing will ever come of them. I also understand that no matter how well a player produces in the minors, if they just don’t have the talent or never developed the ability to hit a curveball (or offspeed pitch in general), for example, then they also will suffer the same fate. I will try my very best to balance potential and statistics in a meaningful way while writing for Bronx Baseball Daily. I will always try my best to be objective, as I believe it is important to look at both the merits and shortcomings of every prospect. Hopefully the balancing act is nothing short of Ringling Brothers material, but I apologize in advance if I ever come off too hard on one side or another for a given prospect.

As I did in my blog, I will enlist the help of Bernie Williams, my favorite Yankees prospect and player of all time, to throw out the hypothetical ceremonial first pitch. Take it away Bern…